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Florida, Michigan, Superdelegates and One Illinois Pastor

Good morning! With soon-to-be-Governor David Paterson already taking the wheel in New York, the political coverage can luckily turn from hookers to politics, just in time for Florida and Michigan to get it together (or not, as the case may be) and for reporters hit YouTube to look into the pastor of Barack Obama's church.

Florida Can't Stop Itself Florida has just a couple of days to put together some sort of plan to get its delegates seated at the Democratic convention, but they can't seem to agree on what to do or how to do it. Although the mail-in primary would be the easiest and cheapest option, no one likes it, the Congressional delegation (most of which has endorsed Hillary Clinton) is insisting there's not enough time, Clinton won't agree to a caucus, Obama hates the mail-in plan, the state party won't do anything unless the candidates agree and Karen Thurman, the Chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, probably has the biggest headache known to woman.

Michigan Might Get It TogetherReports from Michigan, though, indicate that they are actually close to a deal to redo their primaries, a situation likely helped by some ballot initiatives that have already been scheduled for May—and because they're not Florida.

The Superdelegate Clamor Clinton has been leading Obama for months in the contest for superdelegatorial support, and still does. But, Obama's catching up, pulling in 9 superdelegates to her 1 in March so far. In even worse news for the Clinton campaign, if Obama's pledged delegate lead holds through the end of the primaries, Clinton's got to convince 70 percent of the remaining 334 uncommitted superdelegates to side with her or she's got to get a large number of his to defect. Neither scenario seems particularly likely.

That Pastor There have been whispers for months about the pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, where Obama has worshiped for the last 20 years. In today's news cycle, the whispering has stopped and the talking has begun. Tapes of some of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's sermons have surfaced, including ones in which he exhorts his followers to sing "God Damn America" because of certain government policies that disproportionately affect the African-American community. Obama's response thus far has been to defend his attendance at the church while noting his disagreements with the pastor, which is likely to be effective for about another 5 minutes or until more people have seen the tapes.

Have you seen the tapes of Reverend Wright? Do you think Clinton can really take 70 percent of the remaining superdelegates? And why is it that Florida is always in such a troublesome spot when it comes to elections?